Potential Restrictions Imposed on the Production

Licensing of the Play- Due to the fact that Shakespeare's play were written mainly in the late 1500's and early 1600's, the right's and licensing to his play's were his, and when he died in 1616, the plays became free for us to use nowadays. Therefore there were no licensing restrictions which saved us money in budget, and also meant that we were able to adapt it to suit our theme of physical theatre and allowed us to cut scenes that didn't fit with the story line and our adaptions to characters, for example making certain characters female as opposed to male, to create contrast between the 1500's and 2017, where equality between men and women is a strong standing and ongoing protest in today's society.

Venue- 

The venue chosen for our performance of 'The Tempest' was Brighton Open Air Theatre in Brighton, which is a modern thrust stage with a large audience space and stage space. It claims to have enough room to fit 425 people. 

Screen shot from the information sheet provided by the theatre venue. 

This is a screenshot of the website, and I understand that the seating is suited for up to 425 people because it says 'BOAT is a 425 Capacity Open Air Theatre in Dyke Road Park, Hove'. This then allows me to think about how we could advertise the show in order to save money for the cost of hire, by selling a large amount of tickets. To do this I advertised the poster for the show on social networking sites, and gained interest from a range of audiences. I also posted pictures on Instagram of the rehearsal process, along side the link to the tickets on the BOAT website, so that people could gain an interest.

The cost of hire for the Theatre for the day, is £425. This would give us time for the whole day to rehearse the show twice, and also practice in costume within the space, interpreting the stage and audience to see if the costumes are practical for the space. During the day rehearsals, I learnt that I couldn't run down the audience 'stairs' in my dress as it was a tight fitting dress and I was also in bare feet so I couldn't run comfortably on the grass to get round to the top. Therefore we were able to make adaptions to my blocking, and change it so that I ran around the back of the audience whilst saying my line on the wooden surface so that it was more comfortable and practical. I think that to make up the cost of hire, set and costumes, our main focus should have been selling tickets, therefore like I said, I advertised it on social network, however I do think that to improve this for the future, I will also approach member of the public and give them posters personally, like we did in Shoreham festival. The venue sent a contract, in which it states that they are not responsible for loss in profits which means that, again, we were responsible for selling enough tickets to make a profit, which is why my idea of social network advertisement was effective. 

Restriction on funding and refunding. Screenshot from the regulation sheet provided by the theatre venue.

The conditions for the hire were listed and emailed to the hirer, and we were sent them to read over, to understand the risk assessments. I am glad that I read the risk assessments prior to the date in which we were to use the theatre, as I was more aware of potential risks and restrictions. For example, if any damage was caused to the venue or facilities then the hirer would be responsible for paying for repairmen's. For example, they provide us with a hut to use as a dressing room, and facilities such as kitchen appliances and toilet facilities to use throughout the day. To prevent accidental damage we set ground rules on the day and applied them to how professional we were to act, both as actors, and hirers of a venue. This worked well as there wasn't any damage caused. Rules were set out by the manager on the day of the performance, that we were to clean up litter straight after the performance. This is because the venue is set in the middle of a public park, and due to the fact that it is an 'Open Air Theatre', which is outside, it would be easy for rubbish to blow over the fences and reach the public areas which is not environmentally safe. We were also warned that it is a common occurrence for dogs to find a way through the fence and enter the premises, however we decided that if an incident like this was to occur, we should approach the situation calmly and responsibly to show professionalism and reunite the dog with the owners. We did run into an innocent in which we had to drive through a public park to get to the venue car park and one of the vehicles raised concerns to a dog owner. The woman was angry and handled the situation poorly, however we approached her with a calm and respectful tone, and rounded everyone up to stay away from her whilst individuals handled the situation. This meant that it was convenient for both the public, us, the woman involved, and the theatre staff, as the calm tone of the individuals prevented a bigger problem.

Post Show information and procedures. Screenshot from rules and regulation sheet provided from the venue.

The information here about the Hut rules and restrictions also suggests that by cleaning up our rubbish, we will prevent attracting unwanted wildlife which could cause destruction to the theatre.

Should there be a hazard in the venue, for example a fire, then the risk assessment states that we were to find the nearest emergency exit. After reading this I ensured that I made myself aware of my surroundings on the day and spotted two exits that could be used in the case of an emergency. Luckily due to our caution there were no hazards and we secured and handled every potential hazard (for example, the hedgehog and other wildlife) to ensure that we remained safe and respectful to the venue.

Emergency Evacuation Procedure. Screenshot from the risk assessment and information sheet provided by the venue.

Other restrictions that we ran into during our experience on the day were smokers just outside of the venue, who were making noise. We continued to stay professional and chose to ignore these people, which meant that they did not distract from both the rehearsals, and the performance. We also had issues with wildlife at the beginning of the day, as when we were setting the stage and sorting out the electrical uses such as sound, we found a hedgehog by the plugs which, if we had not found it, would have caused the hedgehog harm. To prevent harm to the hedgehog or ourselves we called an animal specialist who came to the venue and handled the hedgehog, and safely returned it to its habitat in another wooded area outside the venue. This meant that we were able to carry on with the rehearsals without a major distraction or allowing situations to get out of control.

Due to the fact that the venue is an 'Open Air Theatre', the weather was unpredictable. Therefore we had to prepare for the worst of weather prior to leaving the college. To do this I ensured that I had warm clothing, and blankets for others so that it would prevent anyone from becoming ill before the performance. This was effective as the weather was low throughout the day, and it was very cold and difficult to focus. I had to work on my focus throughout the day as the cold weather was causing me to shake and shiver, which distracted me from my performance. During the show I was required to wear bare feet and only a thin cape, and due to this I lost circulation in both feet, causing them to go numb. I was however, prepared for this and provided myself with blankets and warm layers to wear backstage between my scenes, and this allowed me to focus during my performance and maintain my professionalism.

The venue provided a schedule for the show, and our allowances for times we should be in and out of the theatre. This made it easer to devise our own schedule and how we could plan our time to create a rehearsal and break schedule to prevent chaos and stress on the day, which was useful because it allowed us all to maintain our professionalism and focus throughout the day and also prevented people becoming frustrated from stress.

Schedule provided by the venue.

Shoreham Shakespeare's Festival- When we performed our chosen scenes in Shoreham, we performed it in part of Shoreham's annual Shakespeare's Festival. Differently to our performance at Brighton Open Air Theatre, the festival in Shoreham was dedicated to just Shakespeare and the anniversary of his death, so the audience of the public were expecting shakespeare monologues and performances. This meant that our performance samples and monologues with the stylised approach would have stood out to the audience because it was different compared to the classically performed shakespeare monologues. I feel that this would have drawn attention to our performance and gained a following prior to our performance for Brighton Fringe. To ensure that I attracted audience members, I gave leaflets to several members of the public and explained our performance to them so that they would be excited as to what to expect. This was effective because I was able to give away information to potential ticket buyers, further promoting our show. I feel that the performance in shoreham went well, as when I performed my scene I ensured that I used more projection to what I am used to in a theatre, to therefore reach the attention of more audience members over the sound of the public market, and the pedestrians and cars going past. This was effective because pedestrians began to stop and watch, therefore drawing more attention towards our ticket sales for our then, upcoming, performance at Brighton Open Air Theatre for Brighton Fringe.

Brighton Festival- We had the opportunity to perform the tempest as part of Brighton Fringe at Brighton Open Air Theatre for our main performance. The difference between this performance and Shoreham Shakespeare's Festival's performance is that Shoreham's audience would be expecting Shakespeare monologues, whereas Brighton Fringe Festival varies in the performance styles, genres and play writes. Therefore we allowed time throughout the process to adapt the performance to a modern day audience, and developed different themes to portray the storyline and narrative to the audience so that it was clear what was happening during the performance. This also created a stylised approach to our performance that made the performance stand out because of how creative and interpretive towards the theme and narrative which made the audience understand the storyline better. I think that due to the fact that Brighton Fringe Festival is a popular and renowned performance festival, it immediately added pressure to our performance, and I feel that it motivated me personally to work harder during rehearsals to ensure that my performance was slick and professional, whilst maintaining the energy. I think that whilst audiences attending Brighton Fringe performances would expect a slick and tidy performance, I feel that it would not work for our specific show, because of our interpretation of physical theatre, and room for improvisation. Therefore I made sure that I was confident with my lines at the early rehearsal process, and only familiarised myself on the blocking and my interaction with other characters, so that when I improvised comedy throughout the rehearsals and during the performance, it was more unexpected and automatically raised the energy levels and pace.

Picture from my performance.